Cinderella (Fairytale)
"Cinderella", also known as "Cendrillon, ou La petite Pantoufle de Verre", is a fairytale featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by Charles Perrault and incorporated in the book "Stories or Fairy Tales from Past Times with Morals" in 1697. A version was also written by German authors, The Brothers Grimm, in 1812. Traditional Plot Perrault's Version= A widower with a young daughter takes a haughty woman as his second wife. The woman and her two daughters, who are as vain and selfish as their mother, force their stepsister into servitude, making her work day and night. Because she sleeps near the fireplace at night and wakes up covered in cinders, the stepfamily dubs her "Cinderella." As the years pass and Cinderella transitions into womanhood, she patiently bears the abuse. One day, the Prince invites every eligible maiden in the land to a ball with the promise of selecting one of them as his wife. The two stepsisters gleefully plan their wardrobes, all the while taunting Cinderella. On the night of the ball, the stepfamily departs for the palace, leaving a saddened Cinderella alone in the house. As Cinderella starts to cry, an elderly woman appears, introduces herself as her Fairy Godmother and promises to ensure that she attends the ball. She then proceeds to transform a pumpkin into a golden carriage, mice into horses, a rat into a coachman and lizards into footmen. After turning Cinderella's rags into a beautiful ballgown and her shoes into glass slippers, the Fairy Godmother tells Cinderella she must leave before the spells break at midnight. At the palace, Cinderella entrances both the court and the Prince but heeds her Fairy Godmother's warning and leaves before midnight. Later that night, she listens as her stepfamily, who did not recognize her, talks about the mystery girl who won the Prince's heart. The following evening, the Prince hosts another ball. With her Fairy Godmother's help, Cinderella attends in an even more resplendent gown. The two become even more enchanted with one another that they lose track of time. As the clock strikes midnight, Cinderella flees, losing one of her glass slippers on the palace steps. Upon seeing the slipper, the Prince vows to find and marry the girl to whom it belongs. After trying the slipper on every eligible maiden in the land, the Prince travels to Cinderella's home, where both stepsisters fail to get the slipper to fit. Cinderella then asks if she can try the slipper on, which the Prince allows despite the stepfamily's protests. The slipper fits perfectly and Cinderella proceeds to produce the other slipper, which she has kept. Sometime later, after forgiving her stepfamily, Cinderella marries the Prince while her stepsisters wed two male members of the Royal Court. |-|Grimm's Version= On her deathbed, a wealthy gentleman's ailing wife tells their daughter to remain good and kind for the rest of her days. The wife dies shortly afterward and the grief-stricken daughter goes to grieve at her gravesite every day. The following year, the gentleman takes a woman with two daughters of her own as his second wife. The stepfamily forces the daughter to wear rags and do all the housework, giving her the nickname "Aschenputtel". Despite being mistreated, Aschenputtel follows her mother's wishes and prays her circumstances will improve. One day, the gentleman asks his daughters what they would like him to bring back from a fair he intends to visit. The stepsisters ask him to bring them dresses and jewels while Aschenputtel asks for the first twig to knock his hat off. When the gentleman returns from the fair, he gifts Aschenputtel with a hazel twig, which she then plants at her mother's grave and waters with her tears until it grows into a hazel tree. As time passes, Aschenputtel makes it a habit of praying under the hazel tree three times a day, telling a white bird what she wishes for, and watching as the bird throws down what she wished for. Several years later, the King decrees that a three-day festival will be held and invites all the maidens in the land so that the Prince can choose a wife. Aschenputtel asks her stepmother if she can go with her family only to be cruelly rebuffed. When she insists, the stepmother empties a dish of lentils into the ashes and says she can go if she can pick them up in two hours' time. Aschenputtel, with the help of a flock of doves that comes to her aid, accomplishes the task in less than an hour only for her stepmother to redouble the task with even more lentils. When the girl once again accomplishes the task in less than two hours, the stepmother, determined to not spoil her daughters' chances of becoming the Prince's bride, refuses to let Aschenputtel go the festival and leaves with the rest of her family. Aschenputtel goes to the hazel tree and, after asking to be clothed in silver and gold, receives a gold and silver gown with silk shoes from the dove. She goes to the castle and captivates the Prince, who spends the first day dancing with her. Towards sunset, Aschenputtel asks to leave and the Prince escorts her home only for her to elude him and hide in the pigeon coop. The Prince asks her father to chop the coop down, which he does only to learn that the coop is empty. The next day, Aschenputtel returns to the festival in even grander apparel. She spends the entire second day dancing with the Price and, towards sunset, eludes him when he tries to escort her home by climbing a pear tree. The Prince asks her father to chop the tree down, which he does only to learn there was no one in the tree. On the third and final day, Aschenputtel returns to the festival in a beautiful dress and gold slippers. She spends the entire day dancing with the Prince but loses track of time and, while leaving the castle, loses one of her gold slippers. The Prince, upon retrieving the forgotten object, vows to marry the maiden whose foot fits the slipper. The following morning, the Prince visits Aschenputtel's home and presents the slipper to the stepsisters. The eldest, acting on advice from her mother, cuts off her big toe and fools him into thinking the slipper fits. When they start making their way back to the castle, however, the dove confronts the Prince and tells him there is blood dripping from the shoe. The Prince brings her back home and asks the younger sister to try the slipper on. She, acting on advice from her mother, shoves her heel in until it starts to bleed. The younger sister fools the Prince and rides with him to the castle only to be brought home when the dove exposes her treachery. The Prince then asks if there is another girl living in the house, to which the gentleman responds by telling him they keep a maid but omitting to mention that she is his birth daughter. Aschenputtel then appears and, after her foot fits the slipper, goes with the Prince, who recognizes her as the girl he danced with at the festival. Show Adaptation First Iteration= First Iteration *Cinderella's real name is Ella. *The sorcerer Rumplestiltskin kills the Fairy Godmother before she can grant Cinderella's wish to go to the ball and replaces the Fairy Godmother's role in this aspect. *One of the stepsisters is actually in love with the Prince's Footman and plans to run away with him only to be thwarted after Cinderella tells her stepmother where they are. |-| Second Iteration= Second Iteration *Cinderella's real name is Ella. *Cinderella attends the ball with plans to kill the Prince rather than marry him. When she is unable to do it, her stepmother stabs him and frames Cinderella for the crime. **Cinderella later leaves one of her glass slippers for a different man to find, whom she later marries. *One of the stepsisters dies after falling through thin ice, while the other harnesses magic and later enacts the Dark Curse to exact revenge against her mother. |-|Other= Other *A stepsister becomes the Red Queen of Wonderland, but she is not related to Cinderella and instead has a stepsister of her own with a story similar to Cinderella's. Characters Featured Locations Featured Items Featured